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Mythic Legions: Stone Troll by The Four Horsemen

Last week The Four Horsemen put a bunch of Mythic Legions stuff up on their site for pre-order, virtually everything sold out very quickly, and I got shut out because I was working, goddammit! Here I was slaving away to earn Troll monies and I missed it. Yeah, and that’s the shame of it. All I was really after was the Forest Troll, but then it was a hundred bucks I shouldn’t have been spending anyway, so I’m not too upset. And besides, it gave me an excuse to finally open up the Troll I do have and ease the pain of defeat.

Holy crap, this is a big box! Let’s not forget that the Mythic Legions line is scaled to about 6-inches, so they really had to spend a lot of plastic to create this behemoth. And that really speaks to the success of this line. It’s rare that Kickstarted action figure projects produce the insane volume of releases that Mythic Legions did, but then to deliver a couple of huge figures like these on top of that. And then have them keep selling out! It’s crazy! Anyway, T4H produced Trolls in two different flavors: Stone and Forest. I had originally planned on buying the Forest Troll, but a little later the weapons were revealed and the Stone Troll’s weapon nudged me over to his side. Ideally, I would have loved to pick up both, but I’ve already recounted how that went.

The Stone Troll comes in a beautiful, heavy cardboard window box with a painting on the back that matches what we saw on the individual figure card backs. The side panels, however, have some lovely original artwork, depicting both Trolls and… Holy shit, is that a Cyclops??? I WANT THE CYCLOPS!!! The fact that both Trolls are depicted leads me to believe that T4H used this same box for both of them, but unless I’m willing to pony up a lot more than $100 for the Forest Troll on the scalper market, I guess I’ll never know. Everything here is collector friendly, so long as you’re patient when removing all of those twisty-tie wires. This poor guy has been all sealed up on my shelf for a long time now, so let’s get him out and have a look!

Say hello to big and ugly, and I mean that as the most sincerest form of flattery, because this guy is fantastic! The combination of sculpt and paintwork on display here shows that T4H can go really damn big and still not lose any of that attention to detail. The variations in flesh tones from the Troll’s rocky hide to the more leathery parts of his belly, inner arms, and hands is like nothing I could ever hope to see on a off-the-shelf toy in this day and age. But hey, that’s the wonderful thing about Kickstarted toys. While the big companies are slashing paint applications left and right to save a couple of nickles, companies like T4H can spare no expense, so long as the supporters are there and willing to lay their money down. On that note, I’ll come back to around to discuss cost and value at the end. I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

I really dig the stony patches that cover his back. The Stone Troll appears to derive his name both literally and figuratively. I naturally assumed he was just a mountain or cave Troll, but he also appears to have adopted the characteristics of his surroundings as well. Maybe that’s thousands of years of Stone Troll evolution that allows him to blend in with his surroundings and ambush hapless adventurers. Whatever the case, it’s a lovely, craggy texture with individual stone scales speckled about and painted in a lighter gray to make them stand out. Other details on this brute include the heavy cuffs he wears on his wrists, and even the soles of his ugly Troll feet are fully sculpted and textured!

The Stone Troll protects his modesty and covers up his own manly stones with with this belted loin cloth. The belt has a hammered metal appearance, which matches that of his wrist cuffs. It’s sculpted as part of the torso and I really dig the way his paunch hangs over the top of the large medallion. I wouldn’t say he’s a fat Troll, but he doesn’t look like he’s missing any meals either. The actual loin cloth presents a bit of mixed media to the figure with the top layer looking like worn animal hide and the bottom layer appearing as frayed cloth.

And that brings us to this lovable mug, which really presents as the most triumphant feature of this Troll. It strikes me as very Lord-of-the-Rings-ish, and I’m talking about the Peter Jackson movie aesthetic. The super glossy red paint used for the eyes looks magical and the paintwork and sculpted detail on his teeth and tusks is mind-blowing. He has a little bit of mud splatter on his face and body, and I just adore his little pointed ears. Hot damn, T4H really poured the love into this guy.

The articulation here is pretty basic, but probably not off base for a giant troll, because these are giant lumbering brutes. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows, rotating hips, and swivel cuts at the ankles, wrists, and neck. The shoulders feature some pretty strong ratcheting joints, which we’ll see is a good thing considering the size of his weapon. His hips are sometimes a little weak for the task of supporting his bulk, but most of the time they seem to hold fine. While the points are all there, there isn’t a huge range of motion in any of them. I wouldn’t call that a complaint, because I wasn’t expecting all that much and there’s still plenty of pose-ability here to have fun with.

Most of the range of motion is in the shoulders, and just look at this guy’s reach! He has a fairly good balance too. Those arms are pretty heavy and yet he’s still holding his own with them both way out in front of him. I wish there were some hinges in those ankles, but maybe next time!

The Stone Troll’s weapon is a giant club made out of a boulder fastened to a tree and like the Troll itself, the attention to detail that T4H invested into this piece is pretty crazy. The tree itself has a realistic wood texture and it’s wrapped with a pair of sculpted bands made to look like hammered metal with bolts running all around the circumference. The stone itself has some runes carved into it and it’s secured to the tree with more of those sculpted “metal” bands. The weapon fits in either of the Trolls hands and it’s actually cast in two pieces of plastic and can split apart in the middle. And as I said earlier, it was ultimately this weapon that won me over when faced with the Sophie’s Choice of which Troll to buy. I’m still very pleased with my decision.

As beautiful a showpiece as this Troll is, the real fun begins when you let him loose amidst the Mythic Legions figures. He’s beautifully scaled to tower over them, lift them up, and rip them apart.

The Stone Troll retailed for $100, which would be steep if this were a regular retail release, but then that’s hard to judge. If Generic Big Toy Company were to put this on the shelf at your local Target, it would probably be half that, but then there’s no way it would have the same level of sculpted detail and quality of paint. As a result, it’s really hard to do price comparisons here, and that is, after all, the whole point of Kickstarters and Pre-Orders. It’s a hefty price tag, no doubt, but I’m not going to sit here and declare that I’ve even a shred of buyer’s remorse over this purchase. The stupid smile I’ve had on my face while playing with this guy is justification enough. And with the continued success of Mythic Legions burning bright, I sincerely believe we’ll be seeing more large beasties in the line’s future.

3 comments on “Mythic Legions: Stone Troll by The Four Horsemen”

Man I wish I could afford that. I bet it’s a curse too but it’s nice to see pleasure is your business. I love your reviews though I wish you would always take a picture of the bios. Thanks for biting the bullet and buying this guy anyway. He’s probably the crown of your mythic legions collection.